I thought I would share something about my current project. My goal for this summer is to run 11s in the 2.3. My ultimate goal is to run 11.50s, and potentially get kicked out of the track for not having a cage... in a 2.3 with as little investment as possible.
So, I'm putting the 2.3 back together, but with a twist. Common knowledge says that you should lower the compression ratio to run high boost. I am ignoring that and doing just the opposite. I just had the head milled for 10:1 compression.
Last year, I was running E85 and never felt like I was using all the octane available. I was initially running 22psi, then later upped it to 25psi, but didn't gain much of anything. The turbo is just too small to efficiently make more boost, so I'm at a wall. Yes, if I had several thousand dollars, I could get a bigger turbo, bigger injectors and stand alone engine management, but that would more than double the investment in the car.
I think the extra compression will give me about an extra 20hp, which should be enough to get an 11 second pass if I can run clean. However, I'm doing a bit of weight loss to insure I get that 11s time slip. The HVAC stuff behind the dash has all been yanked and I have an aluminum drive shaft waiting to go on. I will also be converting to a manual steering rack, which will save about 30lbs and free up the horsepower for turning the P/S pump, which I've heard is pretty substantial on the older P/S systems.
So all in all, I should be making at least 20hp more and I've found nearly 100lbs to yank from the dash forward. To give you some idea about the kind of budget I've been playing with this car on... literally the most expensive part on the car are the nitto 555r drag radials, at 150$ each.
Here is the combustion chamber after having the head milled .115":
View attachment 228638
So, I'm putting the 2.3 back together, but with a twist. Common knowledge says that you should lower the compression ratio to run high boost. I am ignoring that and doing just the opposite. I just had the head milled for 10:1 compression.
Last year, I was running E85 and never felt like I was using all the octane available. I was initially running 22psi, then later upped it to 25psi, but didn't gain much of anything. The turbo is just too small to efficiently make more boost, so I'm at a wall. Yes, if I had several thousand dollars, I could get a bigger turbo, bigger injectors and stand alone engine management, but that would more than double the investment in the car.
I think the extra compression will give me about an extra 20hp, which should be enough to get an 11 second pass if I can run clean. However, I'm doing a bit of weight loss to insure I get that 11s time slip. The HVAC stuff behind the dash has all been yanked and I have an aluminum drive shaft waiting to go on. I will also be converting to a manual steering rack, which will save about 30lbs and free up the horsepower for turning the P/S pump, which I've heard is pretty substantial on the older P/S systems.
So all in all, I should be making at least 20hp more and I've found nearly 100lbs to yank from the dash forward. To give you some idea about the kind of budget I've been playing with this car on... literally the most expensive part on the car are the nitto 555r drag radials, at 150$ each.
Here is the combustion chamber after having the head milled .115":
View attachment 228638
